Saayman Says … Golfing Weblog

Greetings from sunny South Africa

It’s been just over a week now since I landed in South Africa and I wanted to share my week with you.

I have been able to play a total of only 4 rounds thus far with some good and some really bad ones. In addition to this I had 3 hours coaching with Wayne Westner. Man did he work me. I was allowed to hit a total of 8, yes 8, balls in those 3 hours! And that was in the 1^st 10 minutes. What he wanted to do was film the swing to see where I was and where I needed to be. We changed my grip marginally and really worked on me swinging around my core (looks a bit like a barrel on the video clip). Then getting the club on plane and making sure that I rotated my shoulders to fully complete the swing.  I am quite honest in saying that in those 3 hours I really leant a lot and will share the video with you on the blog once I get back to Switzerland.

Sadly all these changes had a major effect on my swing (that’s my story) and my first round at Roodepoort Country Club was disastrous. I shot 20 over par which equates to a 92. I was not a happy bunny.

 Next up was the Gary Player Country Club (GPCC) at Sun City. This is perhaps one of the best tests of golf in South Africa. It’s a masterpiece created out of the African bush by Gary Player which is very long off the back tees (7162 metres) and has narrow but receptive landing areas. The greens are lightning fast but like carpets to putt on. If the line is correct, it’s in, if not it may run way past the hole. I shot a dismal 18 over par playing off the back tees which equates to a 90. Wow a 2 stroke improvement, what an easy game…….

The following day we played the Lost City Course (LCGC) which is more forgiving and designed I believe for the hotel golfer.  You have to take a cart; the fairways are wide and the greens slower than GPCC. Walking is not allowed because it would take at my best guess at least 6 hours to walk. There are some major changes in elevation on this course as well and the landscape is far more dramatic than GPCC. So off we went early in the morning me expecting to keep up the better by 2 shot routine I had established now. I shot 7 over after 9 and felt I was in with a chance. Suffice it to say the next 9 really beat the living s… out of me. In fact it was so bad that I simply picked up on 4 of the 9. This is really not something I often do but trust me if I didn’t there was every chance that I would have driven myself to the 13^th hole and jumped in. The water hazard here is full of Crocs and they could have had me as a play thing instead of all the golf balls that have been lost there. So bang went the ‘my score will improve by 2 each time I play’ theory. This course measures 6549 from the back so a walk in the park compared to GPCC.

What we had done (Etienne Wehrli and his wife Suzanna) is take photos and videos of each other during the round and I took a good look at this after my dismal round at LCGC. I am a great believer in video or photographic assistance while helping someone learn more about their swing. As we cannot see ourselves when we play any kind of sport it’s really difficult to see what you are doing wrong. I immediately noticed that I was falling back at impact. I had, in thinking about all the things I was trying to perfect, forgotten to swing through the ball and complete the swing. I was literally swinging myself off my feet and ending with all my weight on my right side as opposed to the left side. I was determined to see if this was a part of the problem. Etienne Wehrli, who is currently the number one rated amateur in Switzerland and works for Ping, made a few suggestions on how best to get through the ball and complete the swing. He also made a few suggestions to make my putting and chipping stroke smoother and through the ball and more consistent.  He shot around par on each day; I stopped writing his score, as it depressed me too much. He has been coaching Suzanna who has one of the best all round games for anyone I have ever seen playing off 36.

Day 3 and back to GPCC with renewed enthusiasm and hope reborn. All I thought about on tee number 1 was to swing through the ball to complete the weight transfer so that I ended up on my left side. And bam, straight down the middle with a gentle draw. Could this be the start of something? Was I hoping for too much too soon and would I end up in that crocodile pit after all? 2^nd shot onto the green, long birdie putt and walked off with par. I will not bore you to death with a blow by blow account of my round (would love to but that might ruin the friendship) but suffice it to say the crocodiles went hungry. I shot a credible 81 (from the big boy tees again) with 2 double bogeys, one on the 9th and sadly one on the last. Both were a touch unlucky. If the golfing gods had given me about 1metre either way it would have been a round without any doubles.

 A quick note on the Caddy’s.

Sun City has some of the friendliest and most professional caddy’s that I have ever had the privilege to play golf with.  They are a joy to speak to and have you laughing more often than not at this wonderful game. Most play to a low handicap so know the game and importantly this difficult course. They also know where most of the snakes are but not all. Reuben who was caddying for Etienne nearly stood on a Mozambiquean Spitting Cobra but managed to jump back just in time. I thought that he would perhaps die of heart failure afterwards as he must have been pushing way above 200 beats to the minute. Happily we all were able to have a great laugh afterwards but beware.

Will keep in touch.

Wish you were here…………….

Cheers

ONLY A TRUE GOLFER WILL UNDERSTAND

Don’t buy a putter until you’ve had a chance to throw it.

Never try to keep more than 300 separate thoughts in your mind during your swing.

When your shot has to carry over a water hazard, you can either hit one more club or two more balls.

If you’re afraid a full shot might reach the green while the foursome ahead of you is still putting out, you have two options: a) You can immediately shank a lay-up, or, b) You can wait until the green is clear and top a ball halfway there.

The less skilled the player, the more likely he is to share his ideas about your golf swing.

No matter how bad you are playing, it is always possible to play worse.

The inevitable result of any golf lesson is the instant elimination of the one critical unconscious motion that allowed you to compensate for all of your many other errors.

Everyone replaces his divot after a perfect approach shot.

A golf match is a test of your skill against your opponents’ luck.

It is surprisingly more easy to hole a fifty foot putt than a 10 foot one…

It’s not a ‘gimme’ if you’re still 5 metres away.

You can hit a two acre fairway 10% of the time and a two inch branch 90% of the time.

If you really want to get better at golf, go back and take it up at a much earlier age.

Since bad shots come in groups of three, a fourth bad shot is actually the beginning of the next group of three.

When you look up, causing an awful shot, you will always look down again at exactly the moment when you ought to start watching the ball if you ever want to see it again.

Every time a golfer makes a birdie, he must subsequently make two triple bogeys to restore the fundamental equilibrium of the universe.

If you want to hit a 7 iron as far as Tiger Woods does, simply try to lay up just short of a water hazard.

To calculate the speed of a player’s downswing, multiply the speed of his back-swing by his handicap; ie. back-swing 20 mph, handicap 15, downswing = 300 mph.

There are two things you can learn by stopping your back-swing at the top and checking the position of your hands: how many hands you have, and which one is wearing the glove.

Hazards attract; fairways repel.

A ball you can see in the rough from 50 yards away is not yours.

If there is a ball on the fringe and a ball in the bunker, your ball is in the bunker. If both balls are in the bunker, yours is in the footprint or embedded in the far sidewall.

It’s easier to get up at 6:00 a.m. to play golf than at 10:00 a.m. to mow the lawn.

A good drive and 2nd shot on to the 18th green has stopped many a golfer from giving up the game.

Golf is the perfect thing to do on Sunday because you always end up having to pray a lot.

A good golf partner is one who’s always slightly worse than you are… that’s why I get so many calls to play with friends.

If there’s a storm rolling in, you’ll be having the game of your life.

Golf balls are like eggs. They’re white. They’re sold by the dozen. And you need to buy fresh ones each week.

It’s amazing how a golfer who never helps out around the house will replace his divots, repair his ball marks, and rake his sand traps.

If your opponent has trouble remembering whether he shot a six or a seven, he probably shot an eight (or worse).

It takes longer to learn to be a good golfer than it does to become a brain surgeon.

On the other hand, you don’t get to ride around on a cart, drink beer, eat hot dogs if you are performing Brain Surgery!!!!

HAPPY GOLFING…